Friday, May 23, 2008

Calvinism: A Southern Baptist Dialogue

Broadman and Holman just released the new book, Calvinism: A Southern Baptist Dialogue, which is a collection of the papers presented at the Building Bridges conference last November. Ray Clendenen and Brad Waggoner have done a great job compiling and editing the presentations. They have also added a Glossary of theological terms by Shawn Wright as well as 3 appendices (authory, subject and Scripture), all of which will make the book much easier to use than it would have been without them.

The audio of the conference has been available since shortly after the meeting. Now that this book is published, anyone can have ready access not only to the words of the speakers but also to the research on which those words were based. Despite criticism from certain sectors of the SBC that the conference received (and continues to receive), this book demonstrates the ability of brothers to come together to speak plainly and respectfully about important issues on which we do not see eye-to-eye. I highly recommend it.

All of this is supported by God’s Holy Word(The Bible). All of this happened before God Created Man, Before the Forndation of the World.

Eph 1:4 even as he chose us in him “”before the foundation of the world””, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love. Dr. Charles Stanley Saw the Light and Preached on God’s GRACE this past Sunday.

PredesinationGod’s ElectThe Lamb’s Book of Life

Why all of these Baptist Theologians CAN NOT See or Understand this is Beyond Me. My Mother a simple farm girl, Taught me this while I was growing up.

"Tom, why is the paper torn? Some may (& already do) interpret it to mean that Calvinism is tearing the SBC apart. It's only a symbol, but it's amazing what people will fixate on."

Ah, you've got it all wrong. The cover clearly presents a whopping *thirteen* tulips, in all of their integrity, despite the massive gash on the right side of the page. What this means, obviously, is that Calvinism is able to survive even the meanest, ugliest, most unfair critiques that are launched against it. The cover depicts the survival of Calvinistic doctrine in the midst of irrational, institutional persecution.

I'm frankly amazed that Broadman & Holman would unleash upon the SBC such a provocative, pro-Calvinist cover for a book.